H. L. Mencken

Karen Leick (Ohio State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 12 Sep 1880
Died 29 Jan 1956
Activity 1900-1956

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Cultural Theorist/ Critic
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Linguist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Playwright / Dramatist
Poet
Political writer
Satirist
Scholar
Story-writer
Travel writer

Resources

Mencken's Works

Save to Bookshelf

H. L. Mencken was the most well-known and influential American literary and cultural critic of the 1920s. Mencken deliberately printed controversial and even outrageous views and reviews in an effort to encourage readers to think critically about American art and life. He was never afraid to print what he believed, and his honesty, sarcasm, humor and passion attracted young readers in particular. Mencken’s great influence was frequently acknowledged throughout the decade; for example, in Hemingway’s

The Sun Also Rises

(1926), Jake Barnes thinks: “I wondered where Cohn got that incapacity to enjoy Paris. Possibly from Mencken. Mencken hates Paris, I believe. So many young men get their likes and dislikes from Mencken”.

Although Mencken was known as an iconoclast and rebel, his

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1348 words

Citation: Leick, Karen. "H. L. Mencken". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 July 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3079, accessed 22 November 2024.]